Lean season to start sooner than expected

The lean season is expected to begin earlier than normal across the southern African region.According to the Famine Early Warning Systems for Southern Africa report, poor harvests in April and May limited seasonal improvements in food access, agricultural labour and other income-generating opportunities.These factors have constrained poor households&#039; purchasing capacity.“From June to September, an earlier-than-normal depletion of food stocks is expected, and households will increasingly engage in coping strategies of acute food insecurity (Crisis level: IPC 3) to meet their food needs.”The report said income from typical seasonal opportunities such as harvesting labour and crop sales is below normal due to the poor to failed harvests that were impacted by the El Niño-induced drought across the region.“In general, poor households in southern Africa are intensifying their engagement in other off-farm income-earning opportunities such as petty trade, firewood sales and self-employment activities, which are providing below-normal incomes due to the high competition, low demand and poor liquidity among better-off households.”Furthermore, it said that staple cereal grain prices have remained atypically high during the post-harvest period.“Prices of staple grains such as maize, sorghum and millets are likely to remain higher than last year in the post-harvest period due to increased demand and a lower-than-normal market supply.”Meanwhile, grain prices are fluctuating above the five-year average, which negatively impacts the purchasing capacity of poor households relying on market purchases earlier than normal.Prolonged crisis Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has submitted a motion to the National Assembly seeking to extend the drought state of emergency by another six months.Namibia declared the severe drought a state of emergency in May.A crop assessment report by the agriculture ministry estimated in March that the national cereal production of white maize, sorghum, pearl millet and wheat for 2024 will be 72 150 tonnes, representing a 53% decrease from last season&#039;s harvest of 153 012 tonnes.In many communal crop-growing areas, numerous households have depleted their reserves from the previous season and now heavily rely on the market and drought relief assistance for food.The 2023/24 El Niño event, which helped fuel a spike in global temperatures and extreme weather around the world, is now showing signs of ending. There is likely to be a swing back to La Niña conditions later this year, according to a new update from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Lean season to start sooner than expected

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-05

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Lean season to start sooner than expected

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-05

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